European .Mac customers furious at poor performance

Apple moves to reassure European .Mac members that restricted upload and download speeds using .Mac are not a deliberate error on its part, but subscribers are furious at the poor performance.

By
Jonny Evans
| 28 Sep 07

Apple has confirmed multiple reports that European .Mac members are suffering terrible performance when uploading or downloading using the service.

European .Mac users attempting to publish image galleries to .Mac have seen transfer speeds peaking at an insufferable 78k/s, when uploading data. Users have seen similar speeds when trying to access their own and other .Mac member's content.

.Mac subscribers - many of whom are currently facing the need to renew their annual subscription to the £69/year service - have flocked to Apple's discussion forums to complain at the quality of service they have been suffering for an extended period.

Such speed restrictions are experienced even when using fast broadband connections, and have given rise to rumours Apple is keeping .Mac speeds in Europe capped.

This is not the case, Apple explains: "Apple is aware that some .Mac members in Europe have reported slow performance. Some of these members are concerned that this may be due to bandwidth limitations placed by Apple. We would like to clarify that this current performance issue is not caused by Apple’s bandwidth limitations."

The announcement points users to the following article, detailing .Mac transfer limits.

Apple explains that it is actively working with customers in Europe to collect further data to help it better investigate any performance issues.